State librarian s Report Michael Scott, State Librarian June 2018

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1 State librarian s Report Michael Scott, State Librarian June 2018 FY18 & FY19 Budget Update On April 10, 2018, the State Library received notice that as part of the overall reductions to the Iowa Department of Education (DE), the State Library would be required to reduce its budget by $20,000. This cut, while not optimal, was minimal and could be accommodated by salary savings within the FY18 budget. Attached to this report is memo outlining the budget reductions for DE. For FY19, the State Library is to receive $2,530,063, which is a status quo budget from FY18 and includes the full recovery of the $20,000 cut in April Additionally, the State Library retains the current number of FTEs covered under the agency s state appropriation, at 29 FTE. FY19 budget numbers will be included as part of the financial reports in the June 2018 Commission meeting materials. Budget numbers are due to the Department of Education on June 1, Maintenance of Effort Waiver for IMLS Grants to States Program for Federal Fiscal Year 2019 On April 16, 2018, the State Library was notified by IMLS that because the MOE reported on our FY16 Financial Status Report falls below the minimum required (by 2.99%), the agency s FY19 (federal) will be reduced proportionately if an MOE waiver was applied for and received. Without a waiver, the agency would look at a $xxx,xxx reduction in our FY19 funding. I have requested that Nancy Medema and Steve Cox work on preparing a waiver response which is included as part of the June 2018 Commission meeting materials. The requirements for the waiver are listed below: a) A detailed discussion, with supporting evidence, of the exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances such as a natural disaster or a precipitous or unforeseen decline in the financial resources of the State. b) State s total actual appropriations for the period covering FY16, FY15, FY14, FY13. See Appendix, State Appropriations worksheet. c) SLAA s total actual appropriations for the period covering FY16, FY15, FY14, FY13. See Appendix, SLAA Appropriations worksheet. d) SLAA s actual expenditures calculated in the MOE for FY16, FY15, FY14, FY13. See Appendix, MOE Expenditures worksheet. e) A detailed explanation of how a reduction to the SLAA s LSTA allotment would impact the SLAA's capacity to provide library services and programs in comparison to previous fiscal years. f) Actual appropriations for other State agencies for the period covering FY16, FY15, FY14, FY13. See Appendix, Other Appropriations worksheet. g) Discussion of other sources of revenue used by the State for library services and programs. h) Any other relevant information pertaining to the request. The SLAA may want to include applicable State budget requests, Governor s reports, press releases, newspaper and periodical articles, or other supporting evidence for IMLS to consider.

2 MOE Waivers are due to IMLS on June 30, IMLS staff can offer advice about preparing our request as well as provide informal comments on preliminary drafts submitted by May 18, These comments are not part of the formal review process and have no bearing on the final outcome of the request. A preliminary draft was submitted to IMLS by the May 18, 2018, deadline, and is the draft included in the June 2018 Commission meeting materials. The timeline, with the submission of the preliminary draft, is as follows: 1) May 18, 2018 Deadline to submit preliminary draft. *Early submissions will be reviewed upon receipt. 2) May 18 through June 1, 2018 IMLS reviews draft waiver requests. 3) June 4 through June 15, 2018 IMLS provides informal feedback to states via phone. *Phone calls may be made upon review of draft waiver requests (prior to June 4). 4) June 30, 2018 Deadline to submit MOE waiver request. We are hopeful for success in obtaining an MOE waiver for federal FY19 funding. Edge Update The State Library has a signed contract with the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) for a subscription to Edge for all public libraries in Iowa. A rollout plan is in development with a State Library staff team. On June 13, 2018, at the Library Support Network monthly meeting, a full update for district and Des Moines library consultants will occur. We will plan to have a presentation for the Commission at their September 2018 meeting. As a reminder, Edge helps public libraries better serve their communities through improved technology services. The program, developed with over $15 million in investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is based on a national set of benchmarks for public libraries to evaluate their technology services. An Edge Toolkit was developed with these benchmarks in mind, and includes resources, recommendations, and tools for strategic planning and community engagement National Library Legislative Day National Library Legislative Day 2018 was held on May 7-8, 2018, in Washington DC. This two-day event, sponsored by the American Library Association, is an opportunity for librarians, trustees, and patrons to come together to be trained on the pressing federal legislative issues that impact libraries and have the opportunity to meet with their members of Congress and their staff to discuss these issues. The focus this year was a bit more focused: federal funding of IMLS. Iowa was represented by seven librarians from around Iowa, including both myself and Nancy Medema. In addition, attendees included: Alison Ames Galstad, Coralville Public Library Rebecca Funke, Des Moines Area Community College-Ankeny Annah Hackett, Grand View University Cara Stone, Iowa State University Michael Wright, Dubuque County Library

3 We were able to visit all 6 offices of Iowa s members of Congress and had meetings that included Representative Blum, Young, and Loebsack, as well as Senators Grassley and Ernst. Here s a copy of an official photo from Senator Ernst s office: State Library Staff Updates 2018 National Library Legislative Day Tim Skeers, Cataloging Librarian, retired on May 31, 2018, after nearly 10 years at the State Library. Susan Gruber, Library Resource Technician, will retire on June 15, 2018, after nearly 7 years at the State Library. With these two retirements, that is three retirements in FY18 for the State Library. Currently, interviews for one of the LRT positions, which has been reconfigured to be focused on supporting the Continuing Education program for the State Library, are underway. This will reduce the number of LRTs providing support to the six districts from six LRTs to 3 LRTs. After careful considerations, it was felt that this configuration for the 6 districts was adequate. The remaining LRT position will remain open at this time. The Cataloging Librarian position will be re-evaluated and possible posting of the position would happen in the first half of FY19. Duties will be distributed among other Librarian II positions until a new position is determined.

4 Library Visits March 2018 Marshalltown Public Library (March 29) Albion Municipal Library (March 29) Conrad Public Library (March 29) Beaman Community Memorial Library (March 29) - Beaman April 2018 Harcourt Public Library (April 10) Gowrie Public Library (April 10) J.J. Hands Library (April 10) - Lohrville Auburn Public Library (April 10) Morningside College (April 11) Remsen Public Library (April 11) Solon Public Library (April 20) May 2018 Madrid Public Library (February 8) Slater Public Library (February 8) Dunkerton Public Library (February 21) Evansdale Public Library (February 21) Hawkins Memorial Library (February 21) La Porte City Jesup Public Library (February 21) Hudson Public Library (February 22) Other meetings March 2018 IUPLA Meeting (March 9) Des Moines Public Library State Library Advisory Panel (March 14) Iowa Library Association (ILA) Governmental Affairs Committee (March 23) Online via Zoom Committee on Library Cooperation (CLC) the Regent Library Directors (March 29) Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa Greg Heid, Des Moines Public Library Director, Retirement (March 30) Des Moines April 2018 Governor s 2018 Future Ready Iowa Summit (April 3) Des Moines Chamber Coffee & Ribbon Cutting for Grand Re-Opening of Le Mars Public Library (April 11) Edge Kickoff Meetings (April 13) My Personnel Review (April 20) North Liberty Community Library Letters About Literature Awards Ceremony (April 27) Urbandale Public Library

5 May 2018 IUPLA Meeting (May 4) West Des Moines Public Library 2018 National Library Legislative Day (May 7-8) Washington DC 2018 COSLA Spring Meeting (May 9) Washington DC Library Journal/School Library Journal s Stronger Together: Building Literacy-Rich Communities (May 10-11) University of Nebraska-Omaha Spring 2018 Western Council of State Libraries Meeting (May 21-23) Salt Lake City, UT